Dallas, Texas, mayor Mike Rawlings stood in opposition to other Southern politicians (including his governor, Greg Abbott) when he said that he was more afraid of white men with guns than Syrian refugees.
While speaking on MSNBC this past Saturday, November 21, (watch the video here), Rawlings said that he would welcome Syrian refugees to Dallas. When asked about the growing fear over Syrian refugees and possible ties to ISIS, Rawlings responded:
I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters and shoot people up. But we don’t isolate young white men on this issue.
Rawlings also criticized the tendency to conflate ISIS with Muslims in general, asserting that the group does not represent Islam:
We want to get rid of ISIS. We all agree with that. ISIS wants us to be divided on this issue. ISIS wants us to demonize these refugees, wants us to alienate these children. ISIS is no more Islamic than the Nazi senior staff was Christian, and we have got to differentiate between those.